Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS mourns alumnus and literary giant Dr KPD Maphalla

08 April 2021 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo UFS Photo Archive

The late Dr Maphalla with former UFS Chancellor Dr Franklin Sonn — Dr KPD Maphalla with former UFS Chancellor, Dr Franklin Sonn, during the graduations in April 2007.

The University of the Free State is sad to learn of the passing of alumnus and award-winning Sesotho literary giant, Dr KPD Maphalla.

The literary works of Dr Khotso Pieter David Maphalla, like many other African writers and artists, were influenced and characterised by his own era of powerful forms of oppression and exclusion from dominant literary discourses. In his own right and through his writings of poetry, novels, short stories, and kodiamalla (dirge), he articulated a deliberate political and social protest and pushed for a place for African languages in literature at the height of apartheid.

Ground-breaking novel

“He entered the professional scene with his ground-breaking novel, Kabelwamanong, in 1982 at the age of 27. His career actually started in 1971 while he was still at school. Since his first novel, he has produced at least two books annually, covering the genres of poetry, novels, dramas, and short stories. As a dramatist, Dr Maphalla has written a number of excellent and educative radio dramas for the then Radio Sesotho (now Lesedi FM),” said his long-time friend and Head: African Languages at the University of the Free State, Dr Nyefolo Malete.

Honorary degree

“It was for this writing prowess that he received recognition from the UFS when he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Literature by the Department of African Languages during a momentous ceremony on the Qwaqwa Campus in 2007,” added Dr Malete.

Dr Malete also revealed that, despite losing the use of his right hand after suffering a stroke following a car accident in the late 1990s, Dr Maphalla continued writing using his left hand. “He was adamant that, what he referred to as his ‘supposed disability’, would not deter his passion for writing.”

Scholarly studies

Dr Maphalla’s work has also produced numerous scholarly studies by the likes of Profs Moleleki Moleleki (protest poetry), Thapelo Selepe (lament and protest poetry), and Dr Seema Seema (process of cross-cultural communication). He was a committed Qwaqwa community member, who was also instrumental in the founding of Qwaqwa Community Radio (2000) and Metjodi Writers (2006), among others. He has written more than 70 books, many of which have been prescribed texts in schools.

Some of the awards he has won include:

South African Centre for Digital Language Resource (SADiLar) Sesotho Lexicographic Unit (Sesiu sa Sesotho) Lifetime Award for outstanding literary works and for promoting Sesotho literature (2019).

The Literature Festival and the University of the Free State Award for enormous contribution to Sesotho literature by a South African writer (2019).

Lifetime Achiever Award in Literature awarded by the Department of Arts and Culture (2005).

M-Net Book Prize for Sesotho poetry (2005). The first and thus far the only Sesotho author to have received this honour.

M-Net Book Prize for best novel (1996).

De Jager-HAUM Literary Award for his volume of short stories, Mohlomong Hosane (1993).

Thomas Mofolo Trophy for Best Novel, Best Poetry, and the Overall Award (1992).

Thomas Mofolo Trophy for Best Poetry (1991).

Dr JJ Moiloa Floating Trophy for Best Sesotho Poetry Book of the Year, Kgapa tsa ka (1985).

News Archive

The challenges of local governance highlighted at the JN Boshoff Memorial lecture

2014-08-26

Mr Kopung Ralikontsane
Photo: Jerry Mokoroane

The annual JN Boshoff memorial lecture was hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences in conjunction with the Department of Public Management on 21 August 2014. Mr Kopung Ralikontsane, Director-general of the Free State Provincial Government, presented the keynote address, ‘Challenges Facing Local Government in Service Delivery’.

In his opening remarks, Mr Ralikontsane gave the background of the South African municipal structures, the legal framework within which they operate and the challenges they are currently facing. He added that “local government is a sphere at the coalface of service delivery and if this sphere fails, South Africa would have failed to be a developmental state.”

He said the Free State provincial government has made great strides in developing local communities, with millions of rands invested in various development projects such as water and sanitation, electrification, roads and storm water structures, community facilities and solid waste disposal.

Local government is still faced with other challenges, though. He pointed out that public employees are subject to greater scrutiny and increased demands from citizens. As a result, they have to provide better services, but within stricter limits on resources. Conflict arises due to changing relationships between public servants and citizens, downsizing, restructuring and contracting out of government services and activities.

Despite the various structures implemented by local government, municipalities are serving an ever-growing population in an economic decline. Regulations have been put into place to devise credible Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) to improve municipal infrastructure, build competent management teams and strong operations and increase technical capacity for effective delivery of services.

Mr Ralikontsane invited students to join local government in crafting innovative solutions. “We know the problem, but we need to encourage you to join forces with your local government and tackle them.”

Mr Kopung Ralikontsane has served in local government for two decades and also serves as Head of Administration of the Free State Government and as Cabinet Secretary.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept